Hannah’s Journey

Hannah and Bill made a follow up visit to Sloan on Thursday. When Hannah was discharged from the hospital, her oncology team was still unsure of what caused her to accumulate so much fluid around her heart. We now know that it was not caused by an infection, but the test to see if it was cause by a virus will not be back until next week. Because of this, chemo will be delayed one week. The other issue discussed was whether or not to even continue with chemo. If the team felt that the fluid was caused due to the treatment, Hannah would not receive any additional treatments. They would not want to increase the chances of having another life threatening situation. Bill and I, of course would like to see her get as much chemo as she can now, without causing her other issues, to hopefully put her in remission for good. We feel that this is the route that will be taken, but the final decision will be made on Friday, once Hannah goes through scans, x-rays, and cat scans. Hannah remains positive and of course, was so thrilled to begin tutoring sessions on Friday. Imagine having to wake up by 9:00. She is not getting any sympathy from any one else in the house on that issue. She will get tutored 2 hours a day at home, as her health permits. On another note, Austin had a visit to the oral surgeon on Thursday, and the surgeon felt that his teeth would be saved. He is unsure yet if Austin will need root canals on the teeth in the near future, but we were happy that he would not lose any permanent teeth. We do not know what long term affects to his nose and the rest of his face are yet, but we remain hopeful that he will continue to heal, without suffering growth issues to his nose or airway problems. All in all, Bill and I felt that medically, Thursday was a good day for our family. Nothing happened to anyone.